I wanted very badly to be hired by Peat, Marwick & Mitchell, which is now called KPMG. This is an International Accounting and Consulting firm. Since my brother-in-law, whom i had long admired, worked for "Peat" in accounting, i decided yo follow in his footsteps and become a Certified Public Accountant. Hopefully i would also be hired by Peat after my college graduation.
I went to Peat's Human Resources Department in my junior year at college... i informed them i would like to join them upon my graduation. My grades were very good through my junior year. I had always gotten an A or better in my accounting classes.
Upon meeting with the Human Resources Director, he advised me that they would hire me if i continued getting all A's in my accounting courses throughout my senior year. I beat the books, and , except for one course, i had all A's. The one course i didn't get this grade in was Advanced Auditing. I received a B plus. I knew i deserved the higher grade. I spoke to professor, and he said he never gives A's to his students.
I described my agreement with Peat to him. He said that if they question the B plus, tge Human Resources Director would call him (the professor) and he would have to explain his grading philosophy.
After graduation i went to Peat to apply for a position, showed them my grade report and explained the B plus. Shocker of shockers. The Human Resources Director who had made the agreement with me was not with the firm any longer. I thought that the new Director would honor the promise made to me. I was wrong. The new Humarn Resources Director made an issue out of the prosthetic that i wore on my left hand. He didn't want to hire me because of the prosthetics and the assumption that i could not carry large briefcase at the same time. I proved him wrong by carrying on his presence two briefcases simultaneously.
He was still not going to hire me although a promise had been made. Here comes the miracle or lucky break which i had that day, that finally led to my being offered a position.
While i was arguing with the Director that his position was unfair, the back door of the office opened up, and in walked the firm's Senior Partner. He joined the discussion, and the Human Resources Director explained what was happening and why he thought that they shouldn't hire me. The Senior Partner looked at my transcript and saw my grades. He asked me one question: in which course in college had i had my worst grades? I told him Religion. He said, "Good, you're hired. We don't need any religious nuts around here." I thought that the Human Resources Director was going to have a herat attack. Timing is everything. Lucky for me the Seniod Partner needed to heed the call of nature at the exact moment my career was in the hands of tge Human Resources Director. So, my dream came true, and i received an offer signed by the Human Resources Director, who didn't want me in the first place. A few interesting footnotes:
I found out this new Director was biased against graduates from local New York colleges. I graduated from St. John's University, which was located in Brooklyn, New York
My poor grade in religion was due to the fact that i argued with the Priest's blind faith position. In fact, they told me not to attend these classes. I didn't and they gave me twelve credits worth of C's.
Each year i was promoted at the firm. The promotion letters were signed by the Human Resources Director who hadn't wanted to hire me.
I received a Letter of Congratulations from that very same Human Resources Director because i found a way to save one of the firm's clients millions of dollars per year. I took the letter to tge Director to remind him that he hadn't wanted to hire me. Before i left the firm i was told by many of the firm's top Partner that i was one of the best auditors the firm had ever had.
A miracle, luck, or what?
The day i received the employment acceptance letter was one of the happiest days on my life. I loved working for Peat, Marwick & Mitchell, and my career after i left Peat continued to bloom.
Next chapter [CAREER AT PEAT, MARWICK & MITCHELL(NOW KPMG)
